Samsung rolls out 'fastest' laptop mini SSDs

Set to be available in 32, 64, 128 and 256GB capacities, the drives will use Samsung's own 20nm NAND Flash chips. They'll hook up to the host over a 6Gb/s Sata bus using a mini Sata interconnect.

Samsung claimed the drives deliver "the industry’s highest sequential read and write speeds": 500MB/s and 260MB/s, respectively, though it added these can only be achieved "under optimum conditions".

The drives also feature hardware-based 256-bit AES data encryption.

Expect more laptops to ship with SSDs in the coming months as notebook makers get to grips with the shortage of HDDs due to the Thailand floods. Most of the world's hard drives are assembled in Thailand.

And it's a good time to buy an SSD for other reasons: particularly, over-supply and low demand (for now) is pushing Flash prices down. ®